5. DYSMACHUS 661 



to the hindmargin, but becomes more widely spread and more dense and less 

 distinguished from tlie dorso-central bristles as it approaches the hindmargin, 

 and sliorter sparser black bristly hairs occur over the rest of the disc but are 

 shortest and sparsest on the dark side stripes. Bristles usually all yello^vish 

 about the sides but black on the dorso-central rows ; praisutural three or 

 more long and yellowish with sometimes one or two smaller black ones more 

 towards the disc ; supra-alar about six long and yellowish ; postalar about 

 four very long and yellowish ; dorso-central numerous, usually black, and not 

 always easily distinguished amidst the long bristly pubescence but certainly 

 extending forwards to half-way between the suture and the front and becom- 

 ing weak and dying out well before the hindmargin ; several of the bristles on 

 the dorso-central rows may be yellow in a most irregular manner, and in 

 varieties mentioned later on some supra-alar and postalar bristles may be 

 black, and the usually abundant pale pubescence on the hind part of the 

 thorax may disappear. Pleurae not very densely covered with yellowish grey 

 dust and with all the pubescence or bristly hairs yellowish ; prothorax and 

 the space below with fairly abundant short pubescence ; mesopleurye with 

 a tuft of long pale pubescence on the upper part ; sternopleurse with rather 

 sparse pubescence on the upper part ; pteropleurge with a large tuft on the 

 upper hind corner ; metapleurae with numerous rather long fine hairs and 

 with a fan of about ten long hairs of which some of the lowermost are extra 

 long ; hypopleurae with a continuing fan composed of about two long hairs, 

 which are sometimes so strong as to be absolute bristles but at other 

 times hardly stronger than the others, and about three other long hairs near 

 which are two or three others not in the row. Scutellum bearing rather 

 abundant and rather long delicate yellowish white (occasionally partly black) 

 pubescence on the disc, and with numerous comparatively weak upturned 

 marginal hairs of which some (4-10) may be called bristles ; metanotum almost 

 covered with yellowish grey dust, and with brownish yellow pubescence on 

 the hind part of the side humps. 



Abdomen comparatively short conical, greyish white in the pale forms but 

 yellowish grey in others, with (when seen from behind) a dorsal row of large 

 broad rather well-defined blackish grey triangular spots, the broad base of 

 each of these spots lying against the foremargin of each segment and broaden- 

 ing out band-like there on the front segments but less so on the hind segments, 

 and consequently the hindmargin of each segment is light yellowish grey 

 or pale ashy grey to a rather narrow extent (about half) about the middle 

 but more so outwards until nearly all the sidemargins are light greyish ; the 

 four basal segments have broad bare hindmarginal hems (indistinct on the 

 third and fourth segments when the abdomen is short and turned up at the 

 end). Pubescence (as distinguished from bristles) longer, more erect, and 

 more ubiquitous than usual, extending over all the sides and especially 

 abundant and long across the praehindmarginal crest of the basal segment 

 but hardly to be considered bristly except for two or three of the longest 

 hairs towards the sides ; pubescence yellowish white or almost white or with 

 a faint tinge of brownish yellow, very short on the dark triangles and on the 

 basal half of the second segment and on most of the disc, but indistinctly 

 black on the middle dorsal line of the sixth and seventh (and sometimes fifth 

 or even fourth) segments. Bristles numerous, white and conspicuous all 

 across the pr^hindmarginal line of each of the second to fifth segments as rows 

 (except on just the dorsal line) of about fourteen long but not stout radiating 

 bristles, while hindmarginal rows of similar bristles occur towards the sides 

 of the sixth and seventh segments but do not extend so much on to the dorsal 

 part ; eighth segment short and without any hindmarginal ciliation. Belly 

 light grey, bearing long pendent whitish not at all dense pubescence. 

 Genitalia rather shining black and unusually small, bearing all over rather 

 coarse pale pubescence ; claspers small and simple, with the inner curve so 

 gradual that the arms of the forceps enclose scarcely any space, and when 

 seen sideways appearing almost bluntly rounded at their tips ; lower 

 lamella) short, and with a much longer chestnut middle piece between 

 them. 



Legs almost entirely black though the posterior femora appear greyish 

 black through the abundant minute recumbent pale pubescence; base 



